Lansing Lugnuts

The Lansing Lugnuts are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Athletics. They are located in Lansing, Michigan, and play their home games at Jackson Field.

The Midwest League came to Lansing after owners Tom Dickson and Sherrie Myers moved the team to work with the city for a public-private lease to build a new stadium. Mayor David Hollister, and the City Council worked to attract the owners and build the stadium for downtown economic development. The team began playing in downtown Lansing in 1996. The franchise began as the Lafayette Red Sox in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1955; after two seasons it became the Waterloo Hawks, moving to Waterloo, Iowa, where it stayed for 36 seasons. Before the 1994 season it moved to Springfield, Illinois, but only spent two seasons there before moving to Lansing. The franchise was an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals on two occasions in three cities: as the Waterloo Royals from 1969 through 1976, as the Sultans of Springfield in 1995, and then, upon the team's move to Lansing, from 1996 through 1998. The Lugnuts were then an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs from 1999 through 2004 before joining the Jays' farm system for the 2005 season. In September 2014, the Jays extended their agreement with the Lugnuts through the 2016 season. In October 2016, their player development contract was extended through the 2018 season. Since 2021, they have been the High-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics.

The Lugnuts' ballpark, Jackson Field, opened in 1996. The stadium seats over 10,000 fans and is one of the most handicapped accessible stadiums in the country. The franchise attendance record of 538,326 was set during its inaugural year. They won the Midwest League Championship in 1997 and 2003. The Lugnuts have their own original song which plays immediately after the national anthem for every home game accompanied by their mascot, Big Lug.

In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Lugnuts were organized into the High-A Central. In 2022, the High-A Central became known as the Midwest League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization.

Crosstown Showdown

Since 2007, the Lansing Lugnuts have participated in an annual exhibition game with nearby Michigan State University which draws a large crowd of students to the event. The overall record and attendance for each game is as follows:

Playoffs

Media coverage

Jesse Goldberg-Strassler broadcasts Lugnuts home and away games on WVFN-AM. WVFN previously aired Lugnuts games from 2001 to 2003.

Lugnuts games also aired on WJIM-AM from 1996 to 2000 and WQTX-FM from 2004 to 2016. Several games per season aired on WLNS-TV from 1996 through 2001. From 2002 to 2009, one game aired each season on WILX-TV.

Alumni

The following are players in Major League Baseball who played, at one time, for the Lugnuts. This partial list includes players making injury-comeback starts as well as those that developed in Lansing.

Kansas City Royals

* Jeremy Affeldt
* Kevin Appier
* Carlos Beltrán
* Juan Brito
* Lance Carter
* Tim Collins
* Chad Durbin
* Carlos Febles
* Jeremy Giambi
* Mark Quinn
* José Santiago
* Andy Sisco

* Orber Moreno

Chicago Cubs

* Francis Beltrán
* Ronny Cedeño
* Rocky Cherry
* Robinson Chirinos
* Hee-seop Choi
* Juan Cruz
* Ryan Dempster
* Jake Fox
* Adam Greenberg
* Ángel Guzmán
* Rich Hill
* Jon Leicester
* Carlos Mármol
* Sean Marshall
* Juan Mateo
* Adalberto Méndez
* Sergio Mitre
* Orber Moreno
* Corey Patterson
* Billy Petrick
* Félix Pie
* Andy Pratt
* Mark Prior
* Clay Rapada
* Ryan Theriot
* Jermaine Van Buren
* Todd Wellemeyer
* Randy Wells
* Carlos Zambrano

Toronto Blue Jays

* Anthony Alford
* Henderson Álvarez
* Danny Barnes
* Chad Beck
* Jon Berti
* Bo Bichette
* Cavan Biggio
* Ryan Borucki
* Joel Carreño
* Miguel Castro
* Taylor Cole
* David Cooper
* Evan Crawford
* Jonathan Davis
* Matt Dermody
* Danny Farquhar
* José Fernández
* Graham Godfrey
* Ryan Goins
* Yan Gomes
* Kendall Graveman
* Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
* Adeiny Hechavarria
* Drew Hutchison
* Casey Janssen
* Danny Jansen
* Brett Lawrie
* Jesse Litsch
* Aaron Loup
* Trystan Magnuson
* Darin Mastroianni
* Tim Mayza
* Deck McGuire
* Brad Mills
* Daniel Norris
* Roberto Osuna
* Tyler Pastornicky
* Luis Perez
* Kevin Pillar
* Dalton Pompey
* Carlos Ramírez
* Sean Reid-Foley
* Jordan Romano
* Marc Rzepczynski
* Aaron Sanchez
* Anthony Sanders
* Justin Shafer
* Dwight Smith Jr.
* Travis Snider
* Marcus Stroman
* Noah Syndergaard
* Rowdy Tellez
* Ryan Tepera
* Curtis Thigpen
* Richard Ureña

Miami Marlins

* Anthony DeSclafani
* Jake Fishman
* Adam Greenberg
* Jake Marisnick
* Justin Nicolino
* Renyel Pinto
* Matt Treanor

St. Louis Cardinals

* Kiko Calero

San Francisco Giants

* Eugenio Vélez

Roster

References

;Notes

;Sources

*
* Roth, Bob. ''Our Lugnuts, Year One''. 1996.
* Lansing Lugnuts Official Website

External links

Official website

Lugnuts page
at the Lansing State Journal

Broadcaster's Blog
of Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

{{Lansing-East Lansing

Baseball teams established in 1996
Midwest League teams
Sports in Lansing, Michigan
Professional baseball teams in Michigan
Chicago Cubs minor league affiliates
Kansas City Royals minor league affiliates
Oakland Athletics minor league affiliates
Toronto Blue Jays minor league affiliates
1996 establishments in Michigan
High-A Central teams